This plays a lot smoother than the original release. Characters are more colorful, every distorted location has fitting music or sound effects, and the interface makes it helpful to exhaust all your options.

In a way, the more detailed caricature look of the game takes a bit out of the imagination you get from watching the pixels in the original. Imagining what Lefty the bartender looked like was a lot different for me in the original compared to the pants-sagging version in this one.

At the same time it can add some extra charm to the game, like the moose head in the bar revealed to be an actual moose in the pimp's room.

A little too outdated for my tastes in terms of a full playthrough, so I watched a longplay after putting in a few minutes time on my Steam copy.

The intro "age verification" is quirky, but kind of iffy with outdated references and a force quit which takes forever on the Steam version.

Love the way these games are handled. Every interaction from looking at objects or talking to people has their own bit of flavor text. Options seem endless.

Very funny stuff that oozes with charm, lots of tongue in cheek(s). Some of the "puzzles" are a bit long (the amount of TV channels for the pimp could have been lowered,) and there's a fair amount of point-and-click backtracking.

Love the developer and Sierra references!

Now THIS is more like it!

This time, once you get defeated, it actually FEELS like YOU messed up with your Wind God Fist.

Amazing soundtrack, in my honest opinion!

Lee can still suck it.

Hey, this holds up surprisingly well!

But if I ever have to fight T1 Anna or Lee again I am throwing my controller into the drywall. Not to mention all the moments where Lee's entire moveset felt so safe that I couldn't even let go of my block. Throws are also massively OP in this game, but they're also abhorrent in their tech. So many moments where I would have shouted "SOMEONE CLIP THAT" because there was -no shot- that throw did not connect. Terrible.

I need to git gud, that much is true, but oh my god.

6/10

Surprisingly, this was the first Ace Attorney game I ever played. Picking up the DS copy as a kid meant that I didn't read the subtitle as a sequel, but just thought this was the first game in the series. Imagine my confusion going into case 2 of this game.

This is a weird entry in the trilogy because it has a lot of lows, but one of the best high points in the OT.

The introductory/tutorial case is about as goofy as it can get. The other tutorial cases in the OT have that air of mystery and beginnings to them. This one has... Amnesia and Bananas. Turnabout Big Top is kind of in its own little closed off world, but it has a very meh buildup and ending. I wanted to be more lenient to it nowadays, since it's been a while, but it just comes and goes and character motivations/actions are not really believable.

Now, the second case is actually a lot better than the previous two I've mentioned. It builds up the lore of the world, and introduces everyone's favorite little sister character: Nanako. Oh, wrong franchise. I mean, Pearl. Pearl is great. I love her so much and I want to see her smile. The case has a lot of mystery to it and introduces some great new mechanics (first instance of the Psyche-Lock system.) I feel like this one is on par with The Steel Samurai case from AA1. I still have a problem with the plothole of Maya's fingerprints not being followed up on, but whatever.

But then we get to my biggest surprise upon replaying the game: The final case.

This is, without a doubt, still one of the most hype cases in the franchise. I consider this one even better than the already stellar DL-6 case and Return to The Ashes from AA1. Everything works so well, from all the cast being used to their full capacity, to the stakes, to the twists and revelations along the way. This feels like a perfect case. Probably one of the best, if not -the- best in the trilogy.

Would give it 4 stars, due to the fun second case and the fantastic finale... But you're gonna have to pass the Berry Big Circus and a Banana Glove in order to get there.

Case 4 > Case 2 > Case 3 > Case 1

Ah, my childhood... "Like the scent of fresh lemons."

8/10

Excellent start to a stellar trilogy, only being taken down a star due to the sequels expanding on this formula.

Small note: Rise from the Ashes is just a carbon copy of some of the key elements from Turnabout Goodbyes, with a villain in a position of power and a replacement for Maya. Aside from that, a very stellar case.

Case 4 > Case 5 > Case 3 > Case 2 > Case 1

Fun, but a lot of the more subtle mechanics need the Googling of a guide to figure out what all of it means. It's kind of "follow-the-steps-and-see-where-it-gets-you" unless you do that.

Fun mechanics that keep you on your toes, although you can easily cheese this by bobbing on the ladders.

According to a Steam forum page I got locked into the "Bad" ending, which is basically a softlock of an endless loop.

"Oh, too bad! You didn't do X, and Y, and Z. Now, instead of giving you an actual ending, you get to relive this one night over and over again, but if you want to try again you actually need to replay the entire game from the very beginning"

Choke on it.

Bought this game in 2014. I've played it on and off as a moment of hyperfocus. I never finished it, albeit a very short and not very hard experience once you get the hang of it.

It just felt like one of those games I took my time with in one sitting and the moment I put it down, I just sorta forgot I was playing it.

Now, almost a decade later, I finally beat it. What a ride. Loved those epilogue chapters!

The hype does not equal the results.

Don't get me wrong: I loved seeing the journey of the developer in his YouTube videos building up the game. It was a well designed and fun experience. I love to support indie devs. Especially when it comes down to such a small team, knowing a few devs of my own who are in the same circumstances.

Charles looks amazing and the atmosphere really works wonders with the soundtrack. I loved the mechanic of scraps necessary for both upgrades and healing your choo-choo. Riding around in the train is a lot of fun! Big map, too! Loved the little Slender nod!

The rest is a little bit more barebones: The NPC's didn't get the same polish as the environment, player equipment, or Charles; the voice acting is good, at best, but none of the characters have any facial animation or lip flaps, which pulls you out of it during dialogue. I had a few instances where the grunts shot at me during dialogues, which resulted in some funny deaths. Not that there were many. I barely used the sneaking mechanic. Kinda odd that there is a little bit of a zoom in the tilted leaning? No stealth on my end cause it's really easy to outrun the grunts, even in bigger groups.

I think the look of the NPCs are not at the core of this game's design, but a little polish goes a long way. Especially when you're working in UE and the rest looks very flattering.

Speaking of grunts not being scary: Charles. The whole selling point. At first he seems very menacing, but once you start to get used to the deaths not being a big deal with the amount of scrap you can find, he becomes a little less of a scary sight. Some hardcore mode would've been great? Witch Hunt did something similar but evokes this feeling of dread more often. Charles barely appears throughout the game, at least in my initial playthrough. Kinda felt more like an urban legend you were dodging randomly instead of his AI actively getting closer and closer.

It's nice that the deaths are almost an instant reset to a your last hop off of the train and that you only lose less than a handful of your scraps. It's not as if they're hard to find, I feel like the amount was even a bit gullible. It does, however, feel very satisfying to reach max level on your upgrades.

Climax was a little underwhelming and very short.

$20 bucks is a little steep for the playtime of a little less than 2 hours (in my case) with not a lot of room for replayability. You can lure out Charles as much as you like, but not a lot changes.

It was a great experiment, one with a very unique vision and well-crafted execution. Albeit a bit short, it's really the atmosphere that you're here for. Hoping to see a more fleshed out spiritual successor down the line, though.